The PERfect Ending to your Event – Creating your Post Event Report

As a meeting planner I am always looking to make sure that my customers (whether internal or external) achieve optimal results at each meeting.  Once a conference has wrapped up, and before I escape to my oasis, I make sure to produce a post event report (PER) that benefits planners and clients alike.  A thorough report exposes both strengths, weaknesses and is a valuable tool in the efficiency in the planning and execution of future meetings.   The core elements to constructing this report are described and outlined in this blog.  Since all conferences and events are unique there may be more or less elements needed in your PER.

 

Overview

This section should include general information about the meeting, including:

The profile of the meeting, including hotel dates and rates, and pre/post event listings.

How many attended registration, fees and categories, attendee demographics, speakers, and a listing of sponsors and exhibitors.

Summary of Finances

This section consists of the management and activities of funds for the conference otherwise known as the budget.  The budgetary items include:

Marketing and promotional efforts allocated as costs.

Expenditures associated with staff travel, speaker per diems, VIP expenses, subcontractors, transportation, and technology tools like attendance tracking, and an attendee app. etc.

Food & Beverage functions including final guarantees VS actual consumption (how many attendees) participated in catered events.

Revenue generated from sponsorships, exhibitors and registrations.

Monetary concessions such as percentage of profit from lead retrieval sales, complimentary rooms or any other in-kind concessions.

Destination and Hotel 

This section demonstrates the details that fall under site research, the RFP process, and a summation of contracting and negotiations.  Items to include:

Cities considered.

Properties considered.

Concessions offered and established.

Room rates and meeting space rental.

Any value ads offered by destination.

Final pickup VS room block.

Project Management

In this section, you can demonstrate you and your team’s amazing planning capabilities!   Since it is critical to adhere to deadlines, sharing your timeline will assist in the next conference planning cycle, especially with stakeholders that may not fully understand the critical importance of deadlines.

 

Meeting Space Logistics

In this section answer the question “Did the meeting space allocated meet the needs of your speakers and participants?”  Use metrics such as the top 50 most popular sessions based on attendance and data on sessions that were over or under capacity.  Including information such as the average time the attendees spent in a session - or all of the sessions collectively - is also great information.  Ultimately, you can use this section to aid in guiding key players to think about the “big picture” and to better communicate pathways for future meeting attendance growth.

 

Survey Results

The sooner the surveys are delivered, the better the chance you will have for a higher response rate from your attendees, sponsors, and also exhibitors.  While it is still fresh in their minds, I recommend including of pie/bar charts and a concise summary of overall comments.

Creating and reviewing your PER is an important process in evaluating the ROI of the conference internal and external stakeholders. Plus, it is a valuable resource that captures historical data to “smooth the path” for future planning.  Happy post event reporting!

See how Conference Tracker can assist with your PER requirements using a cloud based solution. With Conference Tracker you can:

- Track sessions and CEU reporting.
- Generate conference analytics using charts and reports.
- Capture sales leads quickly and accurately.
- Engage your attendees by providing an Attendee App.